Executive Report Task force on homeowners insurance A 15-member Task Force on Illinois Citizens Homeowners Insurance availability was appointed in August by Director of Insurance Richard Mathias. The chairman is Bill Caruso, Chicago, general counsel of the Leadership Council for Metropolitan Open Communities. The task force is seeking to determine whether adequate insurance is available to Illinois homeowners. Four subcommittees have been formed to study the following: the Illinois FAIR Plan (the state-authorized property insurance pool for hard-to-place risks), the need for new types of insurance policies to meet urban needs, marketing and underwriting practices of companies, and rices and rating of insurance coverage. Caruso said, "Insurance availability is related to race and neighborhood, but is not a redlining issue entirely." Blacks in all black areas have problems and whites in changing areas can't get insurance, according to Caruso. To get input from neighborhoods, four hearings were held in October, three in Chicago and one in East St. Louis. In addition, Caruso said a survey sent to the 70 largest writers of homeowners insurance in Illinois "will provide the task force with the most in-depth analysis ever of underwriting and marketing practices by insurance companies selling homeowners insurance." He believes the survey will also benefit insurance companies who want to see the problems worked out.
Illinois Items According to the Home Builders Association of Greater Chicago, a halt of home construction and loss of jobs in Illinois is looming because of a shortage of cement. The association asked Illinois municipalities to cut down on their requirements for concrete. Industry sources blame the crisis on a number of factors: high demand, a lack of new plants, transportation constraints, environmental restrictions and cement producers waiting for the price to rise. The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency stated it was not responsible for any production cutbacks. An industry task force is investigating the shortage, including the effect of federal air quality regulations on cement production. Along with representatives from business and labor, staff assistants to U.S. Sens. Charles H. Percy and Adlai E. Stevenson III are on the task force. The Adolf Meyer Mental Health Center in Decatur will stay open although the Governor's Cost Control Task Force recommended it be closed. Gov. Thompson made a personal visit to the facility in September and said the quality of staff and plant are such that it would be the wrong place to begin cutting costs. The Department of Administrative Services and the Division of Vocational Rehabilitation agreed in August to develop a long-range plan to remove architectural barriers that prevent handicapped persons from using property owned or leased by the state. Federal unemployment benefits for about 5,000 persons in Illinois were temporarily suspended October 1 due to Congress's failure to act quickly on the 1979 appropriations bill for labor and HEW. Those affected include former federal and postal employees and ex-servicemen. The Northbrook Park District received a grant of $802,500 in October to develop park facilities. The grant is from the federal government and the Department of Conservation. It reimburses the district for half the cost of land purchase and development. Illinois agreed to give owners of Lake in the Hills Dam in McHenry County up to $70,000 in emergency funds for engineering studies on the dam. The dam was declared unsafe by the Army Corps of Engineers this spring. Gov. Thompson has asked the corps to pay for some of the studies with funds from its Dam Safety Program.
November 1978 / Illinois Issues/31
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